Opinions differ within our discussions, some saying it is best to forget. The official position of the Stonehenge Peace Process, and the Truth & Reconciliation Commission for Stonehenge, is that learning about the past, can be an important part of the healing process. We may need to remember, just to ensure these things do not happen again, we must forgive, we must heal, we must move on. But not forget. Those who were there will always remember that extraordinary day. So will many who only heard about it.]

[This account was first published in Robin's Greenwood Gang's YEARBOOK 1985 in February 1986]

On Friday 31st May 1985 people began gathering as Savernake Forest near Marlborough. Nigel Kerton of the Gazette and Herald recalled they came from all directions except South but particularly on the route from Cirencester through Swindon. With this convey were two important eye-witnesses to the events that followed. Nick Davies of The Observer wrote how he rode with the convey into Wiltshire with flags flying and Bruce Springstein playing. Police stopped the vehicles at Stratton and tried to persuade them to turn back. They went through the convey asking names. It was pointed out they had no right to do this. They agreed and carried on asking says Davies. Alan Lodge, better known as Tash, and his wife Mo had been to a gathering near Stratford-on-Avon. For many years Tash has been travelling taking photographs of festivals and he is a Trustee of Festival Welfare Services, the government sponsored aid organisation. The tribe known as "Peace Convoy" came from their camp near Bristol. A different convey came from the Rainbow Village at Molesworth Peace Camp. All were determined to set up the Stonehenge Free Festival, despite court injunctions raised by the National Trust and other landowners.(9)(11)(14)

Just South of Marlborough the convoy turned into the Savernake Forest picnic site at Postern Hill. The warden, Ray Dawkins tried to dissuade them but was outnumbered. Police escorted the vehicles into Savernake Forest. Lord Cardigan blinked "The police asked if I minded having a few vehicles. They said there might be 15 of them. There were hundreds." About 1000 now occupied the forest area. Neither the police nor the Earl had invited them in. Kerton concludes that this advance camp was a secret plan devised by convoy leaders. The camp did not disperse the following day, but some, including media [star] person Sid Rawle and some of the women and children remained at Savernake.(9)(14)

Saturday June 1st was Carnival day in Marlborough and also further South in Amesbury, where a number of festival goers were spontaneously gathering. By noon a number of the vehicles in the forest had prepared to leave, but it was an hour or two before the convoy had formed up and was ready. With the simultaneous deafening sound of hundreds of horns some 140 painted lorries, vans, cars and buses took to the road, "decked with flags and carrying goats, children and every imaginable household chattel" recorded Martin Wainwright of The Guardian. With them travelled the Earl of Cardigan and local tory chairman John Moore on a motorbike. Drinkers from the pubs came out and children waved as the strange cavalcade set off.(2)(3)(9)(14)

Meanwhile at the Stones there was already a confrontation. Over 200 people had gathered in Amesbury and set off on foot for Stonehenge. No report of this has been found in the papers, but a photograph in the Bristol Evening Post shows a crowd with some motorcycles advancing on what must be the police barrier near the Stones. This picture shows some people already veering off to the right where they crossed the fence into the field and some proceeded to set up tents and benders.(4)

Dawn from the Green Gate Peace Camp at Greenham Common was with them and she felt confident that non-violent methods would lead to success. After about fifteen minutes however riot police charged to the attack. Dawn became angry enough to attack the woman police officer who was pushing and abusing her but a pacifist friend intervened taking off the pressure. Nearby two were holding down a man and beating him. She wishes more Greenham women would join the Stonehenge freedom struggle.(5)

This event was extremely important because it was entirely peaceful on the part of the trespassers, and because they actually occupied the festival field for about 35 minutes. Beaten out of the field they were dispersed in different directions but a large number remained congregated in Amesbury, penned back by a police block on the main roundabout outside the town, waiting for the convoy that would never reach them.

Also not reported in the Press was the kamikaze action by 300 Hells Angels who some time during the afternoon succeeded in breaking through the police barriers and reaching the Stones. Most of them were arrested.(1)

The Stonehenge convoy had left Marlborough with hearts high. But police went in front and behind penning them in. After about 15 miles near Shipton Bellinger the last 6 vehicles got separated. Nigel Kerton and photographer Eric Hansen were travelling at the rear and saw the stragglers mopped up. Handcuffed hippies were led away, crying children separated from their parents, lost dogs and vehicles abandoned by the roadside. Nick Davies was also arrested briefly but following on foot found the convoy at the roadblock.(9)(14)

Before the A338 meets the A303 to Stonehenge the main road was blocked with piles of gravel. They were forced to turn left towards Thruxton and when they rejoined the A303 to Stonehenge they entered a trap. The A303 was also blocked near the Park House roundabout by gravel lorries and police vans. A third block began to close behind them. The first convoy van tried to go round the block but was rammed. Other vehicles smashed into the roadblock writing off three police vans.(1)(9)(10)

Officers began to move down the convoy breaking windows. Helen Reynolds was fined for obstructing the police, but the Crown Court allowed her appeal. Judge Hall said she had not been given sufficient time to react to police instructions to switch off and hand over her keys. A picture of Helen being pulled through a window by her hair was shown in court. Tash was 15-20th in convoy and got out to take pictures when he saw about 20 police running back down the convoy. In short order they smashed 5 or 6 windscreens and arrested the occupants. Frightened by this level of violence Tash and fellow drivers joined other vehicles which had broken through the hedge into the field.(3)(9)(11)(16)

The National Trust, The English Heritage Commission and 19 other landlords had joined in an injunction in which 84 named persons were ordered not to trespass on their land. This land was nowhere near where the battle was taking place. Wiltshire County Council had also obtained an injunction covering pieces of their land and highways in a radius of four and a half miles from Stonehenge. The public was expressly permitted to "pass and repass" along the highways but they were not to be used for attending a festival or similar gathering. However the place we are dealing with lay fully six miles from Stonehenge as the crow flies. Why then was the main road blocked?

This depended on the same kind of legal contortion by which Kentish miners were stopped at the Dartford Tunnel because they were thought to be going to picket in Yorkshire where it was thought a breach of the peace would take place. But of course the argument that police acted to prevent a breach of the peace is absurd - they acted deliberately to cause a breach of the peace by a policy of escalation. Because the road was blocked the leading vehicle tried to go round. So it was rammed. Then police vehicles were rammed. So the police started breaking windows. Because windows were smashed the convoy escaped into the field. Because they were in the field the riot police were brought forward. Because the police did not act so as to prevent a breach of the peace their action was illegal, not only in detail, but from its inception as also argued by MP Jeremy Corbyn.(16)

If it had been intended merely to prevent to prevent the convoy proceeding towards Stonehenge, they would have been permitted a retreat. Dr Peter Waddington believed the no surrender policy was devised because of the damage to the police vehicles. But the evidence is that a canvas camp was set up at Holt for the children, an intensive care ward set aside as Salisbury and Eversleigh tip secured for wrecked and impounded vehicles. The co-operation of 6 police forces with full riot gear and armed police in reserve also indicated that a battle was intended and had been planned for a long time. Truly the feckless 600 rode into the valley of blood, unprepared.(7)(10)(15)

Some of us believe that the battle at Stonehenge was part of a wider plan. We do not think it a coincidence that long-established communities such as Tipi Valley, Llwynpoid Co-operative in Wales and Resurgence in Cornwall were threatened with eviction in 1985. We think that it is interesting that when the Ministry of Transport evicted Peter the Potter and his friends from the Green Lantern cafe in Bath they did not need the site; yet the building was demolished on the same day. It was intended to smash up the Stonehenge convoy and destroy their prossessions. Similar actions against the Peace Convoy at Nostell Priory in August 1984 and Fargo Plantation in April 1985 had led to relatively little outcry. That it is wholly and totally illegal and contrary to law as old as Magna Charta is merely a detail from the authorities point of view.

It is about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. About 80 vehicles have broken into the field. Now police in full roiot gear form up for a charge. The vehicles start to drive around and the police being on foot find this difficult to contend with and have to retire. Tash and Mo start attending to the casualties from the initial confrontation on the road. All have truncheon wounds on the back of the head and some are quite distressed.(11)

For four hours there is a tactical stalemate. The vehicles are trapped in the field and the police await reinforcements drawn off to Stonehenge to deal with the Angels. Some throw sticks and stones at police and Nigel Kerton notes "one particularly nasty character wearing a hood peppered the police with a high powered catapult". According to the Daily Express the hippies had knives and petrol bombs. Of course everyone with a kitchen has knives but none where used as weapons at Cholderton. There was a move to discourage the making of petrol bombs. According to Nick Davies one bottle of petrol was thrown. He does not say it was lit. Agitators of the anarchist group Class War may be involved.(9)(14)

Because of his invovlement in FWS Tash agrees to negotiate with the police. After an hour and a half he meets the Assistant Chief Constable Lionel Grundy and it is soon clear that there is little to negotiate about. The offer to withdraw and not proceed towards Stonehenge is rejected. Everyone must be arrested and processed. Tash is told he will be arrested for obstruction if he continues to speak. Most of the convoy felt like Sarah, who had a truck and trailer, "We didn't accept that. We wanted to keep with our buses, otherwise we knew they'd be trashed." Later Sarah will be forced to give her keys and her truck will be written off after it has been used to ram buses.(6)(11)(13)

It is now 7.10PM. About 1000 men from Wiltshire, Hampshire, Thames Valley, Avon & Somerset and Gloucestershire are massing for the attack. Most officers have thier identification numbers concealed under flame-proof jackets, contrary to regulations. With them are some menbers of the Military Police and it will be shown in court, that being more than 15 miles from their base, they are out of jurisdiction.(9)

As the vehicles advance trying to break through the police cordon stones, hammers, truncheons and other similar missiles are thrown at windscreens and glass showers over the occupants. After chasing round the grass field coaches start to run into the nearby bean field. The battle continues for an hour, coaches are rammed and fences destroyed as the field is churned up.(1)(2)(3)(9)(12)

Women, including a pregnant woman are beaten with truncheons, and so are boys of 12. A mother and young baby are dragged through a broken window and thrown weeping on the ground. Glass shattering over Rose, 18 and her child Kaya, six months, who had refused to abandon their travelling home. Lord Cardigan watches as a baby, perhaps the same one, is lifted from its cot covered in fragments of glass. Men and women are dragged off by their hair and truncheoned indiscriminately.(1)(6)(9)(12)

Meanwhile a helicopter broadcasts the ultimatum: "Leave the field, be arrested or we will come after you" and encourages the riot police as they lay about them "You're doing a great job. This is the way they like it".(9)(12)

One large coach has a wire grid across its front screen and runs around the occupants swearing and waving sticks. 2 coaches crash and burst into flames. Eventually only the large coach is left. Repeatedly rammed by a commandeered van, it is halted. First a coloured boy emerges bleeding. Nick Davies sees the young man is trying to surrender but police lean over each other to strike him. His glasses fly off and his teeth are broken.(6)(9)(12)

Nick, another of the occupants, is pulled through the window by his hair and kicked and truncheoned on the ground. As he is dragged to an ambulance he is banged into trucks and trees and ends up with 3 stitches in his head. The boy next to Nick has a broken wrist and he sees the cop twisting the cuffs so he screams with pain. As The Observer photographer Ben Gibson watches the last scenes he is ordered to leave. He walks away and as he tries to take a photo of Nick Davies surrounded by police with raised truncheons he is arrested. Magistrates will later dismiss his obstruction charge.(6)(13)

650 men and women are held in police stations all over Southern England. Children are taken in on a 12 day care order. Most people are released on bail after the weekend. Sledgehammers are used to smash up the interiors of coaches. Vehicles released from Eversleigh are found to be sabotaged. Wires have been ripped out, radiators drained to ruin the engines, battery acid thrown around and food and money stolen. Toys and clothes are destroyed. Nick Davies saw the police moving through vehicles destroying windows and possessions after the battle. A girl's guitar and camera were smashes, even the yoghurts had been stabbed and spilled. "This is my home" she sobbed.(1)(3)(7)(9)(11)

Wreckers' truck Blue Mule crunched a burnt out bus into a heavy duty truck. Official figures said 8 police and 16 hippies were taken to hospital with minor injuries. Another, believed dead, was critically injured with a fractured skull. Local MP Robert Key who had watched, said the lack of injures showed no excessive violence was used, but the Earl off Cardigan was incensed at what he saw as police over-reaction. They offered to evict the convoy for him but he refused to let the police continue with thier pogrom.(1)(2)(3)(4)

Tash and Mo also returned to Savernake. There was a lot of distress and many without food money or even shelter as many vehicles were still in the pound. Miners sent food and £100 cash, and voluntary relief was attempted by FWS. Others joined the travellers in the forest and something of a festival spirit began to arise in what still claimed to be a refugee settlement.(1)(11)

References:

1. Black Flag 17.6.85 (battle photo)
2. Martin Wainwright, The Guardian 3.6.85 (police & stones, coaches)
3. "Peace babes in the front line" Daily Express 3.6.85 (Sue & baby in field)
4. Bristol Evening Post 3.6.85 (crowd approaching Stones)
5. "Hopes fade...." The Guardian 11.11.85 (Riot police smashing windows)
6. Tim Malyon, The Guardian 18.11.85
7. Sunday Observer 28.7.85
8. Greenham Peace Newsletter
9. Nick Davies, The Observer 9.6.85
10. Stephen Cook, The Guardian 14.6.85? (Battle picture)
11. Festival Welfare Services Annual Report 1985
12. Nick Davies, The Observer 2.6.85
13. The Green Anarchist No. 7 July 1985
14. Nigel Kerton Gazette and Herald 3.1.86
15. Douglas Read, letter in Salisbury Journal 25.7.85
16. "Hippies may sue..." Gazette and Herald 12.12.85

[In addition to the sources mentioned, the Editor checked this account for details with eyewitnesses, Alan Lodge (Tash), and the Earl of Cardigan.]